‘Hi Christopher, thanks for paying your telephone bill, and thanks for using our service.’ Who are they kidding? This chatty informality that suggests a person is responding to my recent electronic payment for my telephone and broadband service. The lie is made plain by the little note hidden at the foot of the email, ‘Do not reply to this email, it is an automatic response.’ The thanks are as personal as getting wet in a rainstorm. I have sometimes tried to speak to a person at the telephone company. First, there are all the options to choose from. I pressed a number on each occasion I was asked – but oh dear, the list was too long at one choice and I inadvertently pressed the wrong number – so back to the beginning. When I had hit the right numbers in the right order a voice says, ‘Did you know that you can check out answers to most common broadband problems at www .... ?’ After a space another voice says, ‘Hold the line to speak to one of our advisors.’ I’m hanging on – literally. Then there’s another space and music starts to play, as it fades, yet another voice says,‘Thank you for your patience in waiting. All our advisors are busy at the moment. Your business is really important to us and someone will be with you shortly ...’ That message is repeated every 40 seconds or so. I hang on – five minutes, eight minutes, 14 minutes, sixteen minutes thirty seconds! ‘Your business is really important to us ... .’ The music, so often interrupted, is far from calming. Then it stops – at last! There’s a gentle burrrrr on the line– I’ve been cut off! Who are they kidding? Personal service? No person is involved. This is an automatic response, please don’t reply. The Christmas Scriptures have none of this sham. God born amongst us is no ‘automatic response. Christ is not a generic answer to a generic issue. No, we receive him as a gift to us: ‘For a child has been born for us, a son given to us.’ or again, ‘The grace of God has appeared ... ... He it is who gave himself for us.’ And to the shepherds the angel says, ‘To you is born this day in the city of David ... This will be a sign for you.’ This birth is for our forebears and it’s for us and those who come after us. I was in a class about pastoral care. The topic was homevisiting and the teacher will telling us something of his own experience years before. He was the proud new father of his first child born just a couple of weeks previously. His wife was resting upstairs and the new baby was dozing in a carry cot in the front room, while Dad was on the settee reading some work papers. The minister called, and he asked him into the front room. The business that prompted the visit was dealt with and the minister left. At no point was the child mentioned or even acknowledged as being present. The baby’s contented snuffles were simply ignored. The indignation of the lecturer at his visitor’s ineptitude bristled even in the telling of it so many years later. He told us, ‘Never, but never ignore the baby.’ The minister’s response – or lack of it – had about it the indifference of the automatic response. The most significant person in the room was ignored; the life-changing event so prominent in my teacher’s life at that point went unremarked upon. This cannot – must not – be our attitude to the birth of the Christchild. God born among us; as one of us; for us, is as personal as it gets. He is not to be reduced to a principle; he is not a point to be made or a concept to be agreed with. He is not to be a stranger, a foreigner, an alien; his is not a birth unlike our own or the birth of our children and grandchildren. He is not to be excluded from common human experience; his is not a privileged birth hidden away behind the doors of a rich clinic. Indeed his birth is as those of the most underprivileged; this a birth of make-do and grab what comes to hand. This is the birth of a poor child in poor circumstances, where joy is mixed with pain, relief with discomfort, and completion with threat. He is not brought to birth in cosiness of a fairytale but the painful realities of inadequate resources and confused expectations. Everything we do to shape the birth as something that fits easily with our imaginings is disquieted by the story as it’s given to us. It’s only familiarity that tames the shock of angels and shepherds and imperial dictate and prophet’s expectation and authority. This is personal – this child is for us – but the gift isn’t anything we expected, if we’re honest with ourselves. Grace is disarming; salvation isn’t our everyday plea; justice and righteousness are big ideas that trouble our thoughts; and signs are so easy to misinterpret. The child is born for us but we hardly know why. Did you see the story in the news of the sixteen years old Jordon Cox? Last week he went to his local supermarket and bought £572.16 worth of goods – jam roly polys, biscuits, cheese, butter, mince, chocolates, salad, soup, and even Brussel sprouts. At the till he handed over coupons he had carefully collected over a couple weeks and paid just 4p – that’s a mark down of 99.8%! He donated all his food to the charity Doorstep which gives food to disadvantaged families. He said, ‘I decided I wanted to help as many people as I can, and also show that it’s possible to shop very cheaply, if you know how.’ His mum told a reporter, ‘It’s pretty amazing really, I’m so proud of my boy.’ A heart-warming Christmas story I think. Jordan spotted a way to use promotional campaigns to advantage and in doing so helped a whole bunch of people. He does the same thing for his mum’s shop every week – she’s supporting them both on a limited income. He said, ‘After seeing the smile it put on my mum’s face the first time I saved on the shopping, I thought it was something too good to give up.’ Jordan’s efforts began with a very personal and specific thing – trying to help his mum. God begins with us in a very personal and specific way. God’s effort for us is the Christchild given for us. As it happens I regularly shop at the same supermarket chain as Jordan and his mum. Last week they sent me a whole bunch of coupons. ‘We know that a little help here and there can make all the difference at Christmas,’ it said on the packet. When I opened it up every coupon was for a product that I regularly buy. Is that clever marketing or a worrying knowledge of my personal preferences by a big company? Whatever, I enjoyed the savings on the things I like. The Christchild is born for us but sometimes we hardly know why. Well, God knows why – he charted our preferences, foibles and needs long before the supermarkets’ computers. And he gives Christ to us. Trust that gift. Receive the gift as personal to you. And learn how you may redeem it because he redeems you – this is personal. Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favours!